Distracting your child for less: The Ikea $10 tent

I’m not a huge fan of Ikea. The price tag always looks cheap on their furniture, but it almost never ends up being worth a penny more than you pay for it. The couches in particular are oddly uncomfortable, and while we have several non-Ikea pieces of furniture that have been around for more than a decade, the average Ikea purchase lasts about a year and a half in our house.

It only costs $10 to make your kid this happy.

Ikea does, however, know how to cater to parents of small children. On top of their surprisingly good kid-friendly options in the cafe, they have a ton of cheap toys and other distractions for the little ones.

By far my favorite purchase so far has been the Koja $10 tent. It’s one of the uglier items for sale at Ikea, with a fake igloo thing going on one side of the tent that remind me of the ugly polar bear enclosure decor at the SF Zoo. I also wouldn’t recommend using it outdoors, or even if a strong draft is blowing through your house. It’s completely useless in inclement weather, mostly because the cave-like opening doesn’t have a zipper or any other way to close it.

But even though my son does like to read John King, he’s not too concerned about the design and asthetic flaws of his toys. In the three weeks since we’ve purchased the tent, we’ve gotten about $100 worth of entertainment out of it.

While I don’t have Mike’s Houdini-like ability to squeeze into tight spaces for the benefit of my child, I’ve found that the tent is a nice middle ground. I can toss a half dozen throw pillows in there, sort of curl up in the back, and not end up at the chiropractor the next day.

Everyone wins: Curious George rides his bike as the Warriors drop 129 on the Suns.

Even better, if I tilt the tent the right way, I have a pretty good view of the television. My son won’t watch more than 15 minutes of the Warriors game at a time with me, but if I turn the lights off and let him play with a flashlight and some books, I can usually keep both of us entertained for an entire half.

I kind of laugh when I see toys for 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds that cost hundreds of dollars, when inevitably my son’s favorite toy of the moment has cost us about $3.99.